Today we choose to visit an African Village. On the way, in our Safari Vehicle, we see even more inhabitants of these plains and River. On arrival we are greeted by a village elder who speaks some very broken English. He regales us with stories of his tribe and life on the plains. Our stomachs hurt from laughter brought on by his stories and the loose translations by our guides. We meet the women and children, but we are very surprised to see very few men. Between the elder and our guides, we finally realize the men are “working”. Everyday the men set out for fresh game, water, or building materials for a new “home”. There are no supermarkets here, so everyone is on their own. This has truly been the best experience of all of our lives. The entire journey was highlighted today.
We wake up this morning looking forward to our trip to Victoria falls. After a morning of River Safari, and at least 30 different animals, we disembark our boat for the trip to Victoria Falls. All of our luggage is handled by our staff, so there is no lifting, lugging, dragging, just enjoying being spoiled. We arrive in time for a sunset vintage train ride and cocktails, then an included dinner. Our Hotel is called the Victoria Falls Hotel. A quaint name for another member of The Leading Hotels of The World group. It is quite excellent and the food is outstanding.
This morning we take a guided tour of Victoria Falls. Having traveled much of the world, our imagination was of another water falls, just bigger. That thought quickly disappeared as we approached. Dr David Livingstone discovered the falls in 1855. Named after Queen Victoria, the British name has endured all these years. At a mile wide and twice as high as Niagara Falls, this is a major site to behold. Thundering constantly it delivers millions of cubic feet of water every minute to the river below. The spray rises 1,650 feet in the air and is visible many miles into the plains. A totally outstanding rainforest has flourished next to the falls, with some of the rarest plants on earth as natural inhabitants. During our morning tour we were witness to at least 10 different rainbows. We capped off our last day with a magnificent Sundowners Cruise on the Zambezi river with farewell drinks flowing..
On our last day we were flown to Johannesburg. We elected to stay one more day so as not to be rushed for our flight home. Our memories of this trip will never be matched. We would like to say a special thank you to everyone who made this trip possible. To AMA Waterways, the crew of the Zambezi Queen, Our guides on Safari and at the falls, and Phil and Barbara Angelo, THANK YOU. We can’t wait for our next adventure.
